Shelving is used to support items in homes, workplaces, and other locations where items must be stored and/or displayed. Shelves may be made of plastic, metal, wood, glass, or any other material with sufficient mechanical strength to support loads. Shelves may also be given strength via use of composite materials, sandwiched materials, ribbed structures, or hollowed-out materials of all sorts.
Shelves may abut vertical surfaces such as walls and be fixed using a fixation means. A nonlimiting example would be a flat, wooden shelf fixed on a wall with screws. Shelves may also be part of shelving systems where one or a plurality of shelves are assembled to create a shelving assembly. Shelving systems may also include other auxiliary features designed to supplement the usefulness of the product, improve aesthetics, and provide other useful characteristics.
Shelf and shelving unit design is a constant balance among useful characteristics based on design elements, such as strong mechanical resistance, limited encumbrance, low weight, and low manufacturing and transportation costs. Shelves must resist excessive bending or deformation from permanent or temporary loads. Panels made of sandwich-type composite structures with a cellular-core, light fibrous material display favorable weight to strength characteristics, but such panels commonly used, for example in the aircraft construction industry, are expensive and must be manufactured in several steps as described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,890,023 to Preisler et al.
Auxiliary features, such as interlocks, support wedges, and ground supports, are secured to the shelf or the shelving unit using any of a plurality of known mechanical means. What is needed is a shelf panel cell structure where auxiliary features are an integral part of the design and are of a geometry able to functionally merge into the shelf or shelving unit.
A first object of the present invention is to provide a shelving panel construction exhibiting the favorable weight to strength advantages of a sandwich-type airplane material without the disadvantages of the prohibitive costs associated with a composite structure core in high technology fields. A second object of the present invention is to create a shelf with a unique cell arrangement where maximal load resistance is obtained with minimal overall weight of the panel. A third object of the invention is to provide a shelving panel cell arrangement where the thickness of the shelf can be varied to minimize deformation under a load according to anticipated deformations. A fourth object of the invention is to define a modular structure designed to promote stacking features and ground-holding elements. A fifth object of the invention is to define a modular arrangement able to hold male and female interlocks for linking shelves together. A sixth object of the invention is to provide a shelving assembly where the modular structures are of such a type to house a strong shelf support wedge. Finally, a seventh object of this invention is to provide a modular structure able to serve alternatively as a post support, a stacking support, or a ground support.